Tuesday, Oct. 8, a group of students, staff and faculty convened a vigil outside of Wheatley Hall to hold space for the collective grief that we are experiencing; to mourn and be in community with each other; and to honor the memory of Marcellus ‘Khalifah’ Williams, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, Aaron Bushnell, Matt Nelson and the martyrs of imperialism in Palestine, Lebanon and worldwide.

Instead of showing sympathy or care, the administration of UMass Boston responded by attempting to disband our vigil and disrupt this solemn space of mourning. Immediately upon arriving at the plaza, we were confronted by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Karen Ferrer-Muñiz alongside at least a dozen armed police officers. After Vice Chancellor Ferrer-Muñiz was informed that this vigil was not organized solely by students, but that staff and faculty were present as well, a representative from Human Resources arrived on the scene within minutes — Mickey Gallagher, Executive Director of Labor and Employee Relations.

There are a number of implications to the administration’s hostile response. Our university found it appropriate to respond to a vigil commemorating the lives lost to state violence by dispatching armed police to intimidate us. Furthermore, the presence of these campus “leaders” from the Office of Student Affairs and Human Resources sent an explicit message that none of us would be immune from disciplinary consequences: not students, not faculty, not staff.

We take no solace in the fact that we were not met with direct physical violence yesterday, and feel compelled to highlight the experience of colleagues and friends at UMass Amherst as an illustration of what happens when our campus administrators make the decision to dispatch armed police to peaceful assemblies. On May 7, Chancellor Javier Reyes of UMass Amherst directed campus police — alongside local and state officers — to disband the Palestine solidarity encampment on the Amherst campus, unleashing an abhorrent level of brutality that resulted in 137 arrests, severe physical injuries, and draconian disciplinary consequences ranging from “no trespass” notices for community members to felony “inciting to riot” charges against student organizers.

To paraphrase writer Ayesha Siddiqi, every policy implies the violence necessary to enforce it — both the physical threat of direct violence from armed police, as well as the bureaucratic threat of disciplinary violence from this university’s administration, as evidenced in its updated “Protests and Demonstrations” policies announced in August. As of today, the Administration still has not responded to cease and desist letters issued by the Faculty Staff Union, Classified Staff Union and Professional Staff Union, nor to a letter sent by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression condemning the policy as a violation of constitutional protections of free speech.

One day prior to this gathering, in an email entitled “Supporting Our Campus Community,” Vice Chancellor Ferrer-Muñiz and Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Marie Bowen stated, “We are living in challenging times where there seems to consistently be more news of historic natural disasters, armed conflicts, charged local and national elections, incidents of targeted violence and human rights violations. We want to acknowledge the impact this has on our university community.”

Despite this rhetoric, when met with an actual concrete example of “deeply caring and empathetic individuals” who are “building strong community connections across faculty, staff, and students” in order to create a space to “acknowledge the impact this has on our university community,” the university administration chose to respond with hostility rather than support, and with intimidation instead of compassion. When attendees of the vigil invited the administrators present to address the crowd and explain their reasoning for attempting to disband the vigil, these administrators refused to even acknowledge the invitation, let alone actually engage in a dialogue with the crowd.

While UMass Boston repeatedly professes to be an “anti-racist and health-promoting university,” its administration’s actions continue to expose the shallowness of their commitment to this vision and these ideals — the attempt to suppress Tuesday’s vigil is only the most recent example. What could be more anti-racist than condemning imperialism, racist state violence and genocide? What could be more health-promoting than honoring the sanctity of life and of practicing the importance of community by openly and collectively grieving the loss of life, especially those lives that we are told are not worthy of being grieved?

The response of our UMass Boston administration to Tuesday’s vigil speaks to the hollowness of their words and the callousness of their approach.

These actions were not complicated or nuanced. The administration either stands with students, staff and faculty who are supporting the victims of genocide, or they do not. They either stand with a community which, in its collective outrage and grief, is determined to hold a space for collective healing, or they do not. They either stand with the efforts of those trying to help build a campus culture committed to anti-racism and health-promotion, or they do not.

The administration’s hostile presence on Tuesday told us where they stand, beyond their rhetoric, on matters related to the well-being of our campus community. As Maya Angelou once said, “When people tell you who they are, believe them.”

Signed:

African Student Union

Beacon Coalition for Action

Clinical Graduate Student Association

Creative Network

Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine

Hoy Pinoy

Muslim Student Association

Pakistani Students Association

Students for Justice in Palestine

Young Communists League

This letter appeared in print on Page 12 of Vol. LVIII Issue V, published Oct. 21, 2024.

Correction: This letter originally was published with the “Pakistani Student Association” listed as the “Palestinian Student Association.”